To get more troops, the draft will
likely be reinstated. The implicit prohibition of “involuntary servitude” under
the 13th Amendment to the Constitution has already been
ignored many times so few will challenge the constitutionality
of the coming draft…

A government that is willing to enslave a portion of its
people to fight an unjust war can never be trusted to protect
the liberties of its own citizens. The ends can never justify
the means, no matter what the Neo-cons say.

The Hon. Ron Paul, (R) TXNov. 21, 2003In the House
of Representatives

February 25, 2004 1800 PST (FTW) – The
internet is aflame with the growing awareness that a
state of perpetual and expanding military conflict is
settling in on the planet. Peak Oil and Gas is out of
the closet. Resource wars and wars of survival are predicted
over and above the continuing quagmire that has depleted
U.S. military force readiness in Iraq. As China expands
military and economic assistance throughout West Africa
in direct competition with the US over dwindling oil
reserves, new stories warn of a convenient and impending
ecological collapse which will destroy food production
and lead to a state of perpetual war.

FORTUNE magazine wrote in a January 26,
2004 feature article titled The Pentagon's
Weather Nightmare:

As
the planet's carrying capacity shrinks, an ancient pattern
reemerges: the eruption of desperate, all-out wars over
food, water, and energy supplies. As Harvard archeologist
Steven LeBlanc has noted, wars over resources were the
norm until about three centuries ago. When such conflicts
broke out, 25% of a population's adult males usually died.
As abrupt climate change hits home, warfare may again come
to define human life.

The same Pentagon report which sparked
the FORTUNE article soon prompted another major story
in Britain's The Observer which labeled the report as “Secret”.
After describing apocalyptic climate change triggered
by global warming and the collapse of the Gulf Stream
an important observation was buried in deep in the text.

By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply
will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the
planet into war.

To the eye of any experienced journalist this Pentagon
report was leaked deliberately on both sides of the Atlantic.
Why? Because a military draft is as inevitable as are the
effects of Peak Oil. As described by Stan Goff in Part
I of this series, the U.S. military is already enforcing
a form of draft through the issuance of stop-loss orders
holding not only Guard and reserve personnel but regular
military long past their preset rotations home or out of
combat. Even without an apocalypse, there's going to have
to be a draft.

But resistance in the U.S. will be mighty. In August of
2000, long before 9/11, in a feature article titled When
the Children of the Bull Market Begin to Die, FTW observed
that protracted military conflict was coming and that it
would send a long-needed shock throughout the American
people. In January of 2001, in our story EMPIRE, we warned
that the Bush Cabinet was a war cabinet and that it appeared
to be preparing for a massive global conflict.

It has arrived.

According to Houghton Mifflin, during the Vietnam era
between 30,000 and 50,000 young American men fled the United
States, mostly to Canada and Britain to avoid the draft.
The FBI investigated and secured 22,500 indictments for
draft evasion during a period when it had overseas offices
in only a dozen or so nations.

The laws, the treaties and the technologies have changed
drastically since then. When the draft comes, most likely
in the spring or summer of 2005, it will be much more difficult
for young American men to run and hide rather than join
an imperial military force which is suffering significant
casualty rates, bent on world domination and the absolute
control of hydrocarbon energy.

WHO WILL AND WHO WON'T EXTRADITE

With all of that being said, approximately six months
ago FTW began the laborious process of contacting the foreign
ministries of 75 countries. As in any diplomatic process,
quick answers are hard to come by. Initial phone calls
have had to be followed with written email requests and,
in some cases, formal letters.

Our requests have been forwarded back to the home country
for evaluation and discussion, with the absolute certainty
that the responding government understands the implications
of our question.

FTW has committed to continuing this laborious and expensive
process until we have definitive official responses from
all 75 countries. A complete list of all 75 countries will
be maintained on the FTW web site and will be updated as
new information comes in. We stress that we will not make
an entry unless we have received a direct on-the-record
response from the concerned government.

As of this writing only 16 nations have provided official
responses. Of those, only the countries of New Guinea,
New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland
will refuse to extradite draft evaders back to the US.
Again we stress that immigration policy in some of those
countries may quietly accomplish the same end.

FTW is not openly advocating draft evasion. We are, however,
actively acknowledging that the draft, when it comes in
this climate of increasing global conflict, will not sit
easy with the American people. We think it is our obligation
to provide good information upon which rational and principled
decisions can be based.

TODAY'S OPTIONS

Canada is most certainly out of the question.
Treaty revisions have clearly established that the Canadian
government will toss draft evaders right back over the
border. This will be made easier because the FBI now has
agents in several Canadian cities and, since October 2002,
the Canadian military is now a part of the Northern Command
(Northcom). Northcom is a unified command in which the
armed forces of the Continental United States (CONUS),
Canada and Mexico all report to an American four-star general.
In this case, the general is US Air Force General Ralph
Eberhart who was in command of NORAD on 9/11, the day no
US fighters responded in time to prevent the attacks even
though they had responded much more quickly to less serious
breaches 67 times in the previous calendar year.

The FBI now maintains Legal Attaches or
Legats in 45 countries around the world with four more
to be added in 2004. Other government sources confirm FBI
operations in 54 countries.

Getting a draft-aged male out of the country
and into a foreign country might not be as easy as 35 years
ago with enhanced travel scrutiny and computerized tracking
of passenger manifests. In particular, the White House's
Smart Borders program with Canada hints that the government
is worried about possible draft evasion. The comprehensive,
high-tech program will look at travelers going into Canada
from the US and will incorporate biometric identifiers,
computerized screening of refugee claims, advance passenger
screening, joint passenger analysis units, and increased
security at ports and bus terminals. Plans are being developed
to implement the same procedures along the Mexican border
(Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov)

There is a strong likelihood that all
members of military alliances with the US will not harbor
draft evaders as a part of treaty obligations. This would
include member nations of NATO or the ANZUS alliance.

In addition, there are problems of visa
requirements and immigration law that might prevent young
American men from extended stays in certain countries.
New Zealand, while telling FTW that it will not extradite
draft evaders back to the US has notoriously strict immigration
laws. It is also a member of ANZUS.

(This is a living
Chart! It will be continually updated until every country
has responded.
Check back regularly)

(Last updated: April
22, 2004 - Poland, Brazil)

Extradite?
Yes/No

FBI-LEGAT

NORTH
COM

NATO

ANZUS

CONDITIONS

Angola

Argentina

No*

Yes

* "Requested
State may refuse extradition for offenses
under military law that are not offenses
under ordinary criminal law (article 4,
military offenses-paragraph 4)"

Australia

Yes

Yes

Yes

Austria

Yes

Belarus

Belgium

Yes

Yes

Bermuda

Bolivia

Brazil

Yes

Yes

Canada

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Chile

Yes

China

Yes

Colombia

Yes

Yes

Costa
Rica

Cuba

Czech
Republic

Yes

Yes

Denmark

Yes

Yes

Dominican
Republic

Yes

Egypt

Yes

El
Salvador

Estonia

Yes

Ethiopia

Finland

France

Yes

Yes

Germany

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ghana

Greece

Yes

Yes

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Hungary

Yes

Iceland

Yes

India

Yes

Indonesia

Ireland
(Southern)

Israel

Yes

Italy

Yes

Yes

Yes

Japan

Yes

Kenya

Yes

Korea
(South)

Yes

Latvia

Lithuania

Libya

Malaysia

TBA

Mexico

Yes

Yes

Yes

Morocco

New
Guinea

No

Will
not extradite

New
Zealand

No

Yes

Will
not extradite if violation of military law

Nicaragua

Nigeria

No

Yes

"No treaty exists between US and Nigeria
to mandate repatriation of draft dodgers"

Norway

No

Yes

Discretion of Foreign Ministry

Panama

Yes

Yes

Peru

Yes

Case by case basis

Philippines

Yes

Yes

Poland

No

Yes

Yes

"Extradition can also be denied if
military offense does not constitute a felon under
existing national penal code (Art 5, subsection 4)"

Portugal

No

Yes

Russia

No

Yes

“No agreement for extradition exists”

Slovakia

South Africa

No*

Yes

- * "The
Executive Authority of The Requested State shall
refuse extradition for offences under military
law that are not offences under ordinary criminal
law."

Spain

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sweden

No

No, if only crime is against military
law

Switzerland

No

Yes

No, if only crime is against military
law

Tahiti (French)

Thailand

Yes

Yes

The Netherlands

Tibet

Trinidad Tobago

Turkey

Yes

Yes

UK

Yes

Yes

Ukraine

Yes

Vatican City

Venezuela

Yes

Vietnam

Zimbabwe

Much has happened since we began
our investigation into the potential for a new draft. For
that reason, we've decided to add periodic updates to this
continuing story. (see below)

____

4/20/04 US Senator says "US May Need Compulsory
Service to Boost Iraq Force"
- Quoting a senior Republican lawmaker today, Agence
France Presse reported: "Deteriorating
security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft." Read
Now

Please note the following updates to this story:

5/5/04Selective Service Has Plans to Include Drafting Women and Increasing Eligibility Age to 35- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported this weekend that the Chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft; and that young Americans should be required to regularly inform the government about whether they have training in skills needed by the Armed Services.Read full article here

9/7/04Stop Loss - by Stan Goff The Republican National Convention was about war. As Zell Miller reminded the faithful, "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech." This unacknowledged quotation from Miller's fellow Marine, Father Denis O'Brian, brought a gush of adulation from the Grand Old Party, who love to be assured that all good things come from violence. So long as the Americans are on one side, anybody on the other side is to be regarded as the Gestapo wrapped in the Wehrmacht; once the U.S. starts fighting, the enemy is magically transformed into a mighty horde of well-armed Nazis bent on shutting down the New York Times. Miller made clear that if "this marine" (and the other marines) are on a mission, then by God / by definition, that mission is bound to protect civil liberties rather than mock, curtail, and destroy them at home and abroad. Read full article here